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Our method yielded highly significant effects of word repetition in a previously reported visual word form area (VWFA) in occipitotemporal cortex, which represents hemifield-split words as whole units. We also identified a more posterior occipital word form area (OWFA), which represents word form information in the right and left hemifields independently and is thus both functionally and anatomically distinct from the VWFA. Both the VWFA and the OWFA were left-lateralized in our study and strikingly symmetric in anatomical location relative to known face-selective visual cortical areas in the right hemisphere. Our findings are consistent with the observation that category-selective visual areas come in pairs and support the view that neural mechanisms in left visual cortex\u2014especially those that evolved to support the visual processing of faces\u2014are developmentally malleable and become incorporated into a left-lateralized visual word form network that supports rapid word recognition and reading.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/jocn_a_00900","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,12,23]],"date-time":"2015-12-23T12:35:20Z","timestamp":1450874120000},"page":"252-260","update-policy":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Visual Cortical Representation of Whole Words and Hemifield-split Word Parts"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"28","author":[{"given":"Lars","family":"Strother","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"1University of Western Ontario"},{"name":"2University of Nevada, Reno"}]},{"given":"Alexandra M.","family":"Coros","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"1University of Western Ontario"}]},{"given":"Tutis","family":"Vilis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"1University of Western Ontario"}]}],"member":"281","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,2,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"2021073020591332700_R1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"210","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2013.03.007","article-title":"Distributed circuits, not circumscribed centers, mediate visual recognition","volume":"17","author":"Behrmann","year":"2013","journal-title":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences"},{"key":"2021073020591332700_R2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cortex.2013.02.001","article-title":"Visual interhemispheric communication and callosal connections of the occipital 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